


Storybored Artist

by Vexicle



Series: Timeline [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-02-28 16:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13275633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vexicle/pseuds/Vexicle
Summary: For fuck's sake, why does the school keep dumping more stupid, time-wasting, unnecessary projects on him?





	1. Conception

“Oi, come with me, you stupid fuck.”

“W-what?” Kyler jumps out of his skin as a familiar hand clamps the back of his school uniform’s white collar. “The hell?” He finds himself being dumped on a bench.

“The Art Programme is stupid and now I need to do some dumbass project,” Aspen complains. He slides onto the empty space next to Kyler and brings out his laptop. “Kyler, do you watch TV a lot?”

“Y-yeah?” Kyler’s surprise is waning now.

“Yeah, so, okay.” Kyler notices that Aspen is now holding up a black pen and a notepad, still staring at him with a stony expression. “Give me a premise of a television show.”

“Now?” Kyler gasps. “Like, out of nowhere? _Right now_?”

“It's due today,” Aspen deadpans.

“Okay, here's an idea. How about a series where the main character is a lazy fuck that never does his work and ends up failing out of school over the course of the season?”

The brunet’s mouth twitches at the corner. “Then I'll just be a janitor. It was my dream when I was a kid.”

“You're horrible,” Kyler groans, but he stretches out his hand for the notepad anyway. Aspen passes it over, and he flips through the tiny pages. “ _Nothing?_ ”

“Would I have asked you if I had written something?”

“No,” Kyler admits, “But I was hoping you had like, at least an idea of where to start.” He flips again, fruitlessly, through the pages. “Like, I'm not good with this stuff, man.”

Aspen doesn't say anything and continues to wait patiently. The black-haired teen pulls a face at him. “Dude, you're the one in the freaking Art Programme! No way my imagination will be better than yours! ”

Aspen shakes his head softly. “My ideas got rejected. Their premises were too strange.”

“...do I even want to know?”

“And that's why I need your bland, talentless imagination.” Ignoring Kyler’s ‘Hey!’, he says, “Something vanilla. Something cookie-cutter. Also, no futurism, I still need to draw the character designs and shit.”

“You say that because you’re lazy!” Kyler protests, but then he truly does dig deeper in his mind for ideas. “Asskun, I think the simplest thing to draw would be slice of life.”

Aspen steals his notepad back from Kyler’s grasp, and he takes this as a sign to continue. “Pretty, pastel backgrounds. Just your usual school uniform, I suppose. The good thing is it's familiar, so you can just draw them without too many details and still be recognisable. As long as your teacher isn't too anal about it, I suppose.”

“So I don't need to do any worldbuilding of my own,” Aspen says. He lets a hint of glee enter his words. “Title?”

Kyler sighs. “I'm not good at that either. Without worldbuilding... without context? Without lore?” Kyler makes some vague gesture of intense thought. “Lore is rhymable. What sounds good?”

“Gore.”

The black-haired boy glares at his friend. “Gore has no business being in a slice of life story.” Aspen raises his hand. “Do you want to spend more effort to draw it?” Aspen puts his hand back down.

“Bore,” Aspen snickers.

Kyler taps his knuckles against the wooden armrests. “You know what, I’m deciding for you. Out of all the rhymable words that we don't need a dictionary for, I think ‘More’ is like, the best match.”

“What's your idea, Kyler? ‘Without More’?”

“‘More, Without Lore.’ Sheesh, describes your attitude perfectly. All volume and no depth.”

“Go on,” Aspen says, scribbling furiously and obviously taking that comment as a compliment.

“Woah, woah, stop there! Don't write that, you're gonna get in trouble! Come up with some bullshit reason for the title, I know you're great at that.”

“‘The reason why I chose this title is because I envision this series as a satirical comedy about how meaningless life is’,” Aspen narrates. He looks to Kyler for approval, who just shakes his head.

“Fine, fine, I'm changing it to ‘the inevitability of death’, but I'll make the characters love life and animals and plants and all that crap.” Kyler nods. “Good,” the brunet says. Abruptly, he jumps up from the bench and stretches his hands over his head. “Thanks, Kyler. I'm gonna go wrap this up. I'll buy you some cake later,” he promises as he strolls away. Kyler shakes his head affectionately.

.

“Kyler, Kyler!” Just as the dark-skinned boy shuts his locker, Aspen races to catch up, panting and dropping to his knees when he does. Kyler’s hand twitches and he's about to ask if he's alright when the other boy shoots upwards and _shakes_ him by the shoulders. “I'm fucked, I'm fucked!”

“W-woah! Hey, what the?” Aspen lets go, and Kyler places his hand to his forehead. “Did the teacher not like your preposition?”

Aspen groans. “No, she does, and that's the problem. Get this: we need to do an animatic!”

“...animal? Anime? And wouldn't you have had to do it regardless if she liked your suggestion?”

“An animatic is basically an animated storyboard," Aspen explains patiently; and then he goes into full escape-responsibilities mode. "What the hell, I don't have this much time!”

Kyler sighs as he drags the agitated brunet with him, both of them exiting the front entrance of Chalkhill International. “How long were you given this time? Stick to it.”

“Three months,” Aspen mutters as he kicks the tiny pebbles on the road. 

“Hey, that's not too bad.”

“I need voice actors.”

“That does seems tedious.”

“No, no!” Aspen tugs at Kyler’s shoulders again. “You’ll be one of my cast members!”

Aspen needs to tug his friend back before a van runs him over, he's so shocked. “Asskun!” Kyler protests wildly, face paling at the thought. “There's no way! I mean - I really can't!”

Aspen pulls his phone out of his pocket and hums in thought. “Flustered voice clip acquired.” He plays it back and Kyler winces at his _awful_ voice. Aspen frowns. “I need a better recording app.” 

“Y-you can't just record my voice without my permission!” Kyler whines. Aspen once again fiddles with his phone screen. Kyler cringes even harder. “Better quality,” the brunet concludes.

“Forget it! I'm not going to be a voice actor! I can barely articulate! I sound like a child with a cold!”

Aspen sighs. “Okay, I really didn't want to have to do this. But, Kyler, we came up with this together, so I want you to be in this project too.”

Kyler looks at him suspiciously. “It's because I'm the only one who talks to you, isn't it?”

Aspen rolls his eyes. “Make no mistake, Kyler. I've got classmates with actual artistic talent wrapped around me. I _want_ you to be one of the characters.”

Kyler grimaces. “Thanks for the really backhanded compliment, Ass. I appreciate it.”

“Great,” Aspen announces confidently. “Let's start today at your place.”

Kyler quirks one dark eyebrow as he leads the smug boy behind him. “Why are you suddenly so proactive?”

Aspen waves him away. “Call it excitement, call it superstition. You're here right now, aren't you? I have a feeling you’ll need lots of training.”

.

Aspen sighs, and though his face remains impassive he's seriously considering hitting Kyler a few times for his inability to grasp simple concepts. “Again, come on.”

“Why did I agree to this?” Kyler whines, pouting. It's been thirty minutes and he still can't quite convey the correct emotions in his tone. Painfully ironic.

“I suppose verbal coaching doesn't work. Watch me, Kyler.” Aspen’s puts on his most brilliant smile. “Jane, hello! I'm so delighted you could make it to my house!” He's just narrating from the _very_ poorly written first draft, of course, but the darker boy stares in him in amazement as though he's THE God of Filmmaking.

Aspen returns his face to its usual blank expression. “I hope you understand better now.”

“Why did you make your character a girl?”

“My voice.”

“Oh, right... sorry.” Kyler grips the drafts in his hands. “Ugh... Jane. I'm so... glad to see you?” He grins sheepishly as Aspen smacks his forehead.

“I don't understand,” Aspen groans. “What is it you don't get?”

Kyler shrugs. “Not all of us have a need to act every single day, Asskun.” He flips through the draft again.

“It's just that the character is really similar to you, so why are you having problems?”

“I just don't have experience, Aspen,” Kyler says as he bites his lip. “I can't get used to you not being my Asskun, though.”

Aspen looks the black-haired boy slowly. “Would it be better if we used our real names first?”

“What do you mean? Call you Aspen?”

Aspen grits his teeth. “ _No_ , I mean I definitely won't call you Kyler, and you definitely won't use that damn nickname for me.”

“Make the character male, then.” Kyler rolls his eyes.

Aspen picks up the drafts. “Aspen is a gender-neutral name,” he comments as he cancels out all the old character names, crudely pencilling in their respective real names. He hands the script back to Kyler. “Do it properly this time.”

Kyler sticks his tongue out at the brunet before he returns his gaze to his paper. “Aspen, it's so great! To see you.” Kyler covers his face with his hands and lets out an exaggeratedly loud breath of air.

“Improvement,” Aspen notes. “You know what, you're right, the ad-libbing flows _much_ better.”

.

They need voices for the extras, so when Aspen leaves around 6pm, Kyler gets a book and some jasmine tea and makes himself comfortable in the living room. Sure enough, soon his brothers return. He slams his book down and calls, “Keith! Nick!”

“I'm tired from club activities, Kyler,” Keith says gently. “I can't play soccer with you today.”

“No, no, it's not that! Aspen’s doing some sort of animated storyboard for his art stuff and he wants volunteers. Of course, he piled the responsibility on me again,” Kyler complains as he pulls a face. “So, do you guys want to be Shopkeeper A? Generic Jerk #2?”

Keith laughs. “Oh. I guess I can do that. What about Nick, though? He's like, nine, do you think he can do it?”

Both brothers look over to where Nick is sitting and indulgently watching cartoons. Kyler meets Keith’s gaze again, smiling a bit too innocently. “Child actors exist, right?”

Keith smirks as he ruffles his younger sibling’s black hair. “Good luck, bro.”

.

“I left the setting very vague. I only pitched the summary and main character designs,” Aspen says as he calls Kyler over to their bench again. The dark-skinned boy is carrying his lunch, some goddamn beef noodles, and man is Aspen hungry right now. Sadly, they have gotten cold.

“Why?” Kyler utters through a mouthful of noodles. Aspen leans back.

“As you recall, I did it the day before, but this works in our favour. She wants me to give her a second draft because the first one sucked too much dick. But look, I think we can redesign this whole thing.”

Kyler gives Aspen a blank brown stare.

Aspen gestures to his brain. “Okay, look, I've worked out you really can't do anything unless you refer to me as Aspen and not the character I was supposed to be playing. I'm changing it. We’ll portray ourselves.”

Aspen waits patiently for Kyler to finish slurping up the noodles before he coughs and says, “Is that acceptable?”

“It's gotta be. But see, I was thinking: how stupid is it to just draw animated versions of ourselves doing things? Why not live action if that's the case?”

Kyler chokes comically and almost topples his bowl over. “You want me to _act_ now?!”

“Stop interrupting me,” Aspen orders flatly, smacking the other boy’s back with slight force to unchoke him. “No. I'm going with representations of us. Representations that require less effort to create, probably. It'll be cuter, and like those popular videos in our school’s presentations where they all start acting school life out. Ironically.”

Kyler heaves a sigh of relief. “So I have no need to act?”

“I'm changing part of the premise as well,” Aspen continues. “I hope your siblings are up for brotherly comedy acts.”

“Most likely... I think so?” Kyler stuffs the last of the beef in his mouth, looking excitedly at his friend. “Honestly, this is really cool! I can't wait to begin!”

“You can begin by training to be an acceptable voice actor.”

“Asskun, why are you so mean to me?!”

.

Aspen is in the middle of sketching out yet more frames when his phone rings. He ignores the call, and seconds later he gets a text.

**Kyler:** Hey! So what if they think were doing this bc narcissistic?

Aspen sighs. He leaves his tablet for a while to text Kyler back.

**Asskun:** We’re year 1s and it’s March uwu I doubt anyone knows us cause we're knewe owo rest assured we’re calling ourselves out if I have my way lmao  
**Kyler:** okay sorry to distract you.  
**Kyler:** Stop talking like that btw  
**Asskun:** Nowo 

Aspen allows himself a small chuckle as he watches the notification barrage of Kyler spamming irritated ‘ >:(‘ emoticons. He puts his phone away and goes back to sketching scenes haphazardly in black and white. They’ve thrown their first draft in the bin now, and they probably need some new source material. 

Aspen hums, tapping the edge of his pen against his desk. Teenagers were known for their naive, often hilarious attitudes to things, weren't they? 

It was time to enlist his allies’ assistance.

.

Kyler notices Aspen yet again scribbling something in his notepad. Curiously, he approaches, poking it. “What is that? You've been carrying that thing around all day. What are you noting down?”

“Shut the fuck up. Not so loud. I'm noting down so-called funny conversations,” Aspen explains in a whisper, his handwriting completely incomprehensible to Kyler. He's writing down every word as a group of friends nearby burst into laughter. “It's recess. There's a lot of good material here.”

“Isn't stalking against the law?” Kyler deadpans.

Aspen points the other side of his pen at the black-haired boy. His other hand gives him a thumbs up. “Yes! Fantastic! What you said is the perfect combination of naïveté and sarcasm!”

“Dude, I don't even understand you right now.” Kyler eyes the messy scribbles until Aspen tears out the tiny page and continues writing. “You seem oddly into this project. I've never seen you work so hard on something.”

Aspen shrugs, but his pen doesn't stop smearing ink all over the fushcia sticky note. “I'll be honest, it's a lot more interesting than math or literature.”

“Aren't you good at literature?”

“Just because I'm good at something doesn't mean I enjoy it.” Aspen stiffens. “That was good.” He continues writing so furiously that his pen actually pierces a hole in the paper. The brunet curses softly.

“How long does the animetick need to be?” Kyler asks, trying his best to politely ignore how Aspen is sticking all of the notes onto his white sleeve. His left shoulder is absolutely swarmed with pink.

Aspen doesn't look up. “I'll see how many jokes I can put in context, but the _animatic_ should be a minimum of six minutes long. I'll probably be writing all of these student jokes in it.”

“Ad-libbing,” Kyler muses softly.

“What did you say?”

“Asskun, we could record our conversations.”

“Yes. Brilliant and natural,” Aspen agrees. Finally he runs out of fuschia to write on, and he leans back, satisfied. “What do you want to eat, Kyler?”

The recess bell rings at that moment.

“...is that a good joke, Asskun?”

“Yes. In the actual thing, I'll say ‘shut up’ instead, because tee-hee funny ha-ha.” Aspen stands up from the canteen bench, holding out a hand to his friend. “It's a little inconvenient we aren't classmates,” Aspen says. “Come now. I'll buy lunch for both of us later.”

.

Kyler has just gotten out of the shower and his hair is still dripping when Aspen calls him. He picks up and is greeted with “Which one of us is the boke and which is the tsukkomi?”

“...what?”

“Which one is the straight man and which is the wise guy?”

“Are you asking me if I'm straight?” 

“Wait, wait, hold on.” Aspen disappears for twenty seconds, leaving Kyler befuddled. “Ah yes, sorry, I'm back. That was great too.”

“Are you still jotting down conversations?”

“Yes. My notepad is awful. Bright radioactive green.” Kyler jumps when Aspen blows a raspberry into the speaker. “Anyway, you stupid fuck, what I meant was basically: who cracks the jokes and who reacts to them?”

“For us? It's a little mixed, I think. Hang on, I'm slightly confused with fiction and reality now.”

“I suppose after a while it does get confusing," Aspen acknowledges, but with no sympathy in his tone. "Good night, stupid fucker.”

“That's all you came here to say?” Kyler says teasingly to the sound of the dial tone. He hangs up on his end too, jumping into bed. A wide smile spreads across his face, and suddenly he's feeling overwhelmed. Kyler fetches his pink fluffy pillow and screams into it, legs kicking in excitement.

He's not sure what will come out of this project, but he knows it will be great.

.

“What do you picture yourself as?” Aspen asks. It's April now, two months left. The two are once again sitting at their bench at recess; Aspen because he hates pranks and Kyler because Mrs Aw wasn't too happy with him pasting internet memes all over the whiteboard.

“I have no clue,” Kyler says. He's still giddy from getting the title of the official memelord in his class. For some strange reason, despite being basically branded as the class clown from here on out he doesn't mind.

“Okay, so I'm a cat.” Aspen gives Kyler his tablet, letting him zoom in and inspect the design of the anthropomorphic brown tabby. It's not a full-on humanoid, drawn in a cartoony style.

“You kinda suit being a cat,” Kyler agrees. “Do I have permission to go take online quizzes to determine my spirit animal?”

Aspen snatches his tablet back. “Sorry,” he mutters, hunched over his tablet.

Kyler ignores him and strikes a thinker pose dramatically. “Anyway, I guess I'm sort of a dog, I think? A fox? Wolf?”

“Generic canine,” Aspen offers.

Kyler snaps his fingers. “Yes, do that.”

Aspen snaps his fingers back. “Your character can't be black, though. That isn't eye catching enough with my brown tabby. Hey, so did you know that purple is the new black?”

Kyler blinks. Good lord, why is Aspen snapping his fingers so close to his face? “No, but I -”

“Now you do,” Aspen says in a mock cheerful tone. “You will be a purple canine.”

“Can you put pink in it?”

“Of course, Kyler.” A hint of a smile touches Aspen’s lips.

.

Fuschia is such an annoyingly bright colour in Aspen’s opinion. Yet he finds himself using the colour to highlight the inside of the character’s ears, to colour in the canine’s eyes. Aspen’s blue eye twitches as he eyes the layer count. Forty-fucking two. That annoying-ass teacher Mrs Stark better like this new draft.

Finally he's done with spamming the rest of the white highlights, and Aspen leans back in his chair.

“Kyler,” he calls, nudging the dark-skinned boy next to him; the poor thing has fallen asleep waiting for him, and Aspen pokes him harder. “Oi, get off the desk, you asshole. You can't sleep like this.”

“Sorry,” Kyler chuckles sheepishly, wiping at his eyes. “You took so long I finished like, all of my homework.”

“What about mine, then?”

“You know very well I won't help you with that!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Aspen tugs at Kyler’s arm, and the two of them sit on the bed. Aspen’s bed isn't pink or fluffy like Kyler’s is; rather, the smooth black bedsheets have a practical look to them. Aspen brings his tablet with him. “Here. Let’s start recording. I have a basic idea of how I want the scenes to go.”

“What's your idea?” Kyler asks, recording himself as a test. He winces again as he plays it back. “Definitely clearer.”

“Cute animals doing cute things. Don't people love that kind of stuff?”

“They do, I think?” Kyler sighs as he eyes the ‘script’, they've both agreed it's nothing more than a suggestion at this point. Keith has actually sent his voice lines to Aspen, and the brunet is slightly confused why Kyler’s older brother would be so enthusiastic about such a thing. He mentally notes to thank him if he sees him later.

He takes Kyler’s hand in his and squeezes it. “Okay, just pretend we’re having a real conversation. You and me, just us being regular friends and no recorder in sight. Alright?”

Kyler swallows nervously, squeezing back.

“Okay, let's begin.”

Of course, it doesn't even take five seconds for Kyler to butcher his first line.

“...you know what, let’s roll with that.”

.

Luckily for Aspen, his ploy worked. Once the pressure was taken off him, Kyler did reasonably well. He seemed more confident, more natural. The brunet had even uttered a few words of praise before he slammed the door in Kyler’s beaming face.

Now to begin the long, slow, painful process of sketching every single scene out, sticking in the lines, and hopefully being enough to score him a pass. Aspen wasn't really a high achiever, after all. It would ruin the reputation he had built up.

Aspen sighs, cracks his knuckles, and dives into the metaphorical pile of work.

.

“It took me one fucking month!” Aspen complains loudly.

“Did your teacher like it?” Kyler inquires, and he really is interested to know what her comments were. Aspen showed him the finished animatic, and Kyler was pretty impressed. By no means was it polished, but he could tell for once that Aspen actually did try, and it was pretty good in his opinion.

Aspen shrugs nonchalantly. “I think so, but I that's most likely because she's legally required to like it.”

“So, what now?”

“What?”

Kyler pauses. “What will become of this project now?”

Aspen actually laughs. “God, it’s over. This is fantastic.”

“Wait, its over? So… no more?”

Aspen pauses and his eyes widen. “Well, yes.”

“Aww man, I thought it would become like an actual animated series or something! I was so excited, too!”

Aspen is looking at him strangely now. “An actual... animated series?”

“I guess it was rather silly of me to think that in the first place, right?” Kyler laughs.

“... we can try.”

Kyler is so dumbstruck he just stares at the other boy. Did _Aspen_ just say something positive?

Aspen coughs. “Animation is timely and costly. But we can try. Though, I suppose we actually need a good intro now.”

“Really, Aspen?” Kyler clasps his hands to his chest, grinning happily.

Aspen nods. “We can always start our own web video channel. I bet it will be poorly made, but if you want to try, I'm willing to as well.”

“Yeah,” Kyler says slowly. “Yeah, let's do it.”

Aspen lets a serene smile cross his face. “We’re partners now, Kyler.”


	2. Creation

“Tell me, are any of you guys interested in…” Aspen turns around and looks from side to side conspiratorially for dramatic effect. Also, humour. People love humour. He leans in close to his nearest classmate and whispers “... _animation?_ ”

He smiles widely and he hears an excited whisper ripple through the students nearest to him. “I joined this class solely for that,” a brunette informs Aspen.

“We’ll be starting a short animation module this Friday,” another comments, and then Aspen is gasping theatrically, hooking one arm around her shoulder and leaning in. He pets the top of her head in a friendly manner. 

“Wait, what?” Aspen pitches his voice to a whine and pouts, blue eyes widening. “I can't believe I totally missed out on stuff again!” He leans in slightly, the corners of his lips twitching upwards. “So, Marie, can you fill me in again? Pretty please?” He clasps his hands together in a praying gesture, and gives her a pleading expression. _Not too real, that will look desperate. Exaggerate it for comedy. Smile widely so she thinks I'm joking._ Aspen isn't even sure if he identified her correctly; frankly, everyone looks the same to him. 

Apparently she actually is Maria, since she doesn't object and just fills Aspen in with all the details. He nods and puts on his attentive face. The bell rings and he quickly hugs the blonde in a friendly manner, before grabbing his bag and running out of the classroom. “You guys are lifesavers!” he calls over his shoulder.

Kyler is of course, punctual, and also slightly amused. “Aspen, Aspen, Aspen,” he says teasingly. Aspen swaps his smile for a glare and Kyler laughs, shaking his head. “I didn't know you were such a suck-up.” Kyler’s grin grows even wider at the sight of Aspen’s glare becoming all but lethal.

“Piss off.” Aspen tries to smack Kyler, who only continues laughing and dodges. Curse his reflexes. “Anyway, this is good news. It means sooner or later, I can do shit anyway. It's one of the options for our class learning, so I'll need to sign up. Seems popular, unfortunately, so I might get assigned to something else.”

“Will you be able to get in?”

“I mean. Probably.” Aspen checks his phone. “... registration started last month. Well then.”

“You know, just a suggestion, but you should probably start paying more attention in class,” Kyler says dryly.

Aspen holds his finger to Kyler’s lips to shush him. “I'm trying to help you out, you ungrateful sod.”

“And as your friend, I'm trying to help you unscrew your life.” Kyler looks over at the web form displayed on Aspen’s cellphone. “You know, today’s the first of July. Are you sure that by ‘last month’, it means too late?”

“Okay, okay.” Aspen taps out a few processes on the form. “I passed it up now. We’ll see if I get in.” Aspen smirks as he rubs his palms together. “Oh, good. If I get in I can rope more people into the project as well!”

“This seems painful for everyone involved,” Kyler worries. “Are you sure it's fine?”

Aspen waves a hand dismissively. “Of course it’s fine, I'll make it work somehow. You care too much.” The brunet places his phone back in his pocket. “It's always good to find some help, though. So, go. Shoo. Do your thing. I'll see you tomorrow.” And then Aspen abruptly claps his hand over Kyler’s back, startling him, and the older boy whizzes past him in a flash. Aspen chuckles to himself as he looks back and spies Kyler’s bemused expression.

He never said his help came free, after all.

.

Kyler’s eyes narrow with concentration as he lifts the gun to eye level. The targets are set far away, in linear rows that made Kyler mistake the shooting range for a bowling alley during his first club session. He sticks out his tongue, takes aim, and shoots. The bullet misses the target by half a meter, and he grips the pistol hard, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

There is a strange brown-haired boy standing off to the side. Correction, sitting to the side, and he's so quiet and small against the background that the teacher in charge, Mr Tan, hasn't even noticed the intruder. Aspen glances up occasionally, his deep blue eyes always flickering to Kyler. Even from this distance the dark-skinned male can tell Aspen’s clicking his pen furiously, looking him up and down and making sketches of his stance.

“You're doing well,” he hears, and then he glances back to where a redhead, Leigh, two years his senior is tutoring him. The year fours have finally exit the club after June, and it’s time for the current year threes to take over. Kyler and Leigh have become well acquainted ever since shooting club activities started in February, and now his senior gives him a smile and a thumbs up.

“I missed,” Kyler says in a small voice.

“You missed one out of twenty bullets,” Leigh corrects him, patting his shoulder.

“That's not good enough.”

Leigh gives him a long, measured look. “So, you’re telling me you can encourage your batchmates, but when it comes to you, somehow you're the exception?” 

Kyler flinches a little. “I-I’m sorry!” he squeaks. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be proud!”

Leigh bursts into sharp laughter. “Boy, I'm really bad at this!” Following Kyler’s bewildered stare, the redhead squeezes his shoulder. “Listen here, mate. You're the best gunman the year one batch has. I know you like pushing yourself, but sometimes ya gotta relax, no?”

Kyler’s mouth opens and closes and he starts to stammer the start of a reply, but he's crudely interrupted by Super Ninja Aspen who's staring at Leigh with a strange look on his face.

“Are you two friends?” Aspen asks, still scribbling away at the (banana yellow) notepad in his hand. Kyler doesn't even bother peeking. Whatever he's writing is sure to be completely illegible.

Leigh looks surprised. “Well, g’day to you too. I'm his senior. Year three, class 3-02, Leigh Hall. Nice to meet you, mate.” She holds one hand out, and Kyler holds his breath. Aspen eyes her hand with slight distaste, but takes it anyway. Kyler sighs in relief.

Aspen looks behind him for any suspicious teachers before turning back to Leigh. “If you don't mind, can I ask you about shooting club later?”

Leigh has a surprised expression on her face. “Isn't it a little too late for club tryouts?”

“I'll explain later,” Aspen promises, scurrying away just mere seconds before Mr Tan booms, “Hall! Mitchell! Get back to practice!”

_What a bastard,_ Kyler thinks in jest. He clutches the gun in both hands again. How dare Asskun take away a minute of practice time and land both him and his senior in The Eye of Mr Tan. He hums in amusement as he tries shooting another round of bullets.

“Believe in yourself,” Leigh remarks as she punches Kyler’s shoulder in a friendly way, before strolling off to help more poor juniors. Kyler makes sure his senior is a long way off before he lets a proud beam cross his dark features.

.

“Your senior was very informative,” Aspen remarks as he fiddles with the notes in his hand.

“No, she just has a basic understanding of responsibility,” Kyler says, to which he earns a light slap against his shoulder.

Aspen rolls his eyes. “Kyler, how good are you at art?”

Kyler puffs his cheeks up with air. “I can't draw. You know that.”

“Okay, are you able to trace?”

“Most likely?”

“Good,” Aspen says with obviously sarcastic cheer before piling a large file into Kyler’s hands. “You are now promoted to unpaid novice animator.”

“Is this for More, Without Lore? I can try, I guess.”

“Great.” They part ways at the intersection between roads. “Send it to me when you're able!” Aspen calls over his shoulder. “I have a whole backlog of chemistry to catch up on!”

“You damn ass! Stop dumping all your shit on me!” Kyler shakes his head. A bit further down the road and he finally reaches his home.

It's hours before Kyler finally takes a shower and comfortably leaps into his bed, buried under the covers. Kyler takes out the contents of the file, feeling admiration for Aspen’s sketch of the interior of the shooting range. The brunet has drawn several arrows to different portions of the interior, labelling them and their colours. At least, Kyler assumes they're colours. ‘Yellow ochre’ and other such foreign terms dominate the page.

Flipping through the other pages, Kyler realises they're sketches of various poses, and one whole page is solely dedicated to gun holding stances. He chuckles at the sight of Aspen highlighting the label of position #12 with vague writings that seem to say, “The _correct_ pose for holding a gun, unlike what media dumbasses think.”

It's then that his phone rings, and the caller ID notifies him that it is indeed Asskun calling. He picks it up and of course the first thing he hears is “I forgot to put your assignments in the file I gave you.”

“Well then, what do you want me to do?” Even over the phone, Kyler is clearly exasperated.

“Any chance you'd like to listen to my humble speedpaint commentary?”

“Weren't you going to do your homework? Which, might I remind you, is _a week overdue?_ ”

“What's another week then?” comes the nonchalant reply, and Kyler is overwhelmed with the sensation of wanting to strangle Aspen. He consoles himself with the thought that twenty different teachers scattered around school will probably do it for him.

“Fine. I'm going to put the phone on speaker. Ramble away. I need to revise.” Thank whoever invented apps for wifi calls. Aspen isn't going to start studying anytime soon, is he? Typical.

“Nerd,” Aspen taunts, and Kyler pulls a face at his phone. He pulls his history textbook to him and taps the pencil against his chin.

“Animation is dumb and annoying,” he hears Aspen explain over the phone. The crackles are almost overtaking his faint voice, and he sounds far away. “Therefore, in the actual video itself you need to cut some costs. Especially if you're a lowly student.”

Kyler hums noncommittally. 

Aspen trails off, then pipes back up to add, “Okay. Now this looks just the right combo of lazy and endearing.”

“What?”

“Shading isn't even blended and I'm colouring slightly out of the fractured lines. Very childish, very appealing.”

“Aspen, I’m an intellectual, not an artist.”

“So I'm telling you to shut up and listen, you dumbfuck.”

“Fuck you too then.” Kyler clicks his tongue and redirects his attention to the history of whatever war in whatever damn year. Honestly, Aspen’s low commentary is actually kind of soothing. Kyler admits to himself that he likes this strange kind of background music, and chuckles slightly.

“You're helping me do some of this shit by the way, so I hope you paid attention.”

“W-wha? Hey!” God he's going to _kill Aspen alive_.

.

It's Sunday and Kyler and his siblings are just returning home from the ice cream shop around the corner when all three of them realise there’s a moving van parked at the drop-off point of their condominium. A lift ride up and their question is half-answered; someone's moving into the flat next to theirs.

“New neighbours!” Nick cheers quietly.

Curious, Kyler pulls Nick further by his hand and cocks his head. All he can see are a bunch of movers wearing the uniform carrying large heavy boxes. And then Keith lets out a “Oh!” and Kyler spots her at the same time the older male did.

“G’day, mate,” a certain redhead says, winking at the Mitchell siblings. She's carrying _two_ boxes, and Kyler is honestly highly impressed.

“Leigh!” Keith waves at her, and she simply nods back. He jogs over, smiling and saying excitedly, “Dude, when you told me you were moving, you didn't tell me you'd be moving here!”

Leigh vanishes into her new apartment. “That would simply rid me of the chance to stalk you,” she teases when she emerges back outside.

“How long have you been planning this?”

“I'm joking, don't worry. I mean, I could see your address on the class list, but the ones who decided to move were my parents, obviously.”

“Do you two... know each other?” Kyler asks slowly, gawking and looking from his brother to his senior. Two years his senior. Of course. He should have seen it before.

“ _Me?_ ” Keith asks, flabbergasted, pointing at Kyler with his mouth open. Kyler just stares back.

“Simple.” Leigh’s voice sounds further away again, and oh. She's walked away during the whole staring contest. “Keith’s my classmate. I sit next to him in class,” she explains as she adjusts the positions of some of her boxes. Satisfied, she returns outside. Her parents appear to be done discussing with one of the workers, and the movers nod as they roll their large box-carrying-thing away.

"Oh, right, shooting club, right?" Keith flashes a sheepish grin at Kyler. "Right. Sorry, I totally forgot."

“So is _that_ why you took me on?” Kyler asks, the surprise fading away. He really should have expected them to at least be acquaintances. That was just how Chalkhill worked.

“Partially. The other half is because you seemed to be a workaholic and I wanted you to lighten up a little. The others didn't seem to notice that day, or any other day.” Leigh pauses. “So, your friend? She didn't explain why she needed all that information even though she said she would. Do you mind filling me in?”

“Well, Asschan’s an irresponsible cock,” Kyler says, and then he freezes when he realises he just revealed that he's a major anime freak right in front of his senior.

Leigh doesn't seem to notice and just laughs without any malicious intent Kyler can detect. “No, no, not that. I mean what kind of stuff is she working on?”

“Asschan… has a project h-she’s working on,” Kyler says, his fingers clenching around the cotton of his shorts when Keith looks at him meaningfully. “We worked on it together, actually. We’re trying to start up a slice-of-life animated thing in our free time.”

“Sounds fun. Does she need help?” Leigh asks. The movers return with a second wave of boxes, and she nods at Kyler to continue before she picks one box in each arm and strides back in.

“He said he needed animators,” Kyler says slightly louder. Keith elbows him in the ribs and he yelps, undignified. “Um, if you can do that, that would be great!” Kyler squeaks, rubbing his poor side.

Leigh pops her head back outside, and bluntly asks, “Is your friend a boy or a girl?”

“Um! Um, um, ah…” Kyler stammers. Oh crap oh crap oh crap. Keith gives a slight shake of his head, but unfortunately Leigh notices as well.

The redhead makes a ‘calm down’ motion with her hands. “Easy there, mate, I already suspected it. I just need to know.” Leigh frowns. “They were wearing the PE outfit when they were supposed to be in uniform, but they had long hair and that voice, so I just kind of assumed ‘she’ until otherwise spoken.”

“His mother won't let him cut his hair,” Kyler explains wearily.

“...that's kinda stupid.” Leigh shakes her head. “Tell him I'll get into contact with the rest of my batch and see what I can do.” She waves at Kyler when her mother calls her name. “Bye! I gotta go!”

Kyler turns to Keith, bewildered. “Is she in the Art Programme as well?”

Keith hums in response, taking Nick’s hand from Kyler and unlocking their own apartment’s door. Nick obviously had no idea what was going on at all, and he squeals in excitement as he bounces on the couch.

“Nick!” Keith scolds sharply, and the small boy pouts but obeys. 

“What the hell. Is there anything she can't do?”

Keith laughs. “It's not good to idolise your senpais, Kyler. I know she's crap at chemistry and physics. I bet you're smart enough to tutor her in that.”

“I can't possibly know things two years ahead!”

Keith smiles at that. “Why don't you go ahead and tell her that. I bet she'll beg you to teach her anyway. She'll just say something along the lines of, ‘The power of Christ will help both of us!’”

“Wait wait wait, she's a Christian?”

Keith glances at his agitated brother. Casually, he snatches the remote from Kyler and switches the channel. “Is that a problem?”

“N-no, it's just…”

.

“You told a Christian what I am,” Aspen says flatly.

“N-no, I mean, yes, but I'm really sorry! It was an accident, it just slipped out, I-I swear!” Kyler actually has tears in his brown eyes, and something tugs at Aspen. He quietly offers a tissue to Kyler; the other boy sniffs, wipes his eyes and accepts it.

“Kyler,” Aspen says with gentle caring mode switched on. Quietly, softly. Don't scare him. “It's okay. Happens to the best of us.” Resist the urge to call him fucker, even affectionately. His expression turns thoughtful. “What I don't get is why your senior isn't forming a petition to drive me out of school, or something.”

Kyler looks shocked and horrified. “Why would she do that??”

“My mom is a Christian,” Aspen says, though it's primarily to himself. “I don't get it. She said that's what Christians are supposed to do. What I'm supposed to do.” He lets confusion slip into his words.

“I really hope she's part of the vocal minority,” Kyler says sincerely. “There's good news, though. Senpai said that she'd try to rope in the year threes in your Art Programme for the animation thingy.”

“Senpai?” Aspen quirks his brow.

Kyler laughs awkwardly. “I don't know. I kinda adopted it after Keith said that.” He rubs his red eyes.

“Uh-huh.” Aspen looks unimpressed. “I made sure to bring your homework today.” He casually tosses a file to Kyler, and he clumsily catches it with his arms instead of his hands like a goddamn normal human being. Aspen rolls his eyes. “Hope you can figure out what to do.”

The bell rings and Aspen stands up from their bench. “Hey, wait!” Kyler protests, tugging on the brunet’s shirt. “You can't just toss me here like this!”

“Watch a tutorial on the internet. If you really can't, I'll help you.” Aspen escapes Kyler’s grasp. “You better hurry, class is starting.”

“Fuck you, this is like, the second time I've missed lunch!”

.

Aspen hates being home.

He never really can stop the chill that runs up his spine at the sound of the door unlocking at precisely 8p.m. every night, no matter how much he tells himself to stop caring. Aspen stiffens and whirls around in his office-style chair when the door to his room opens.

“How's my little girl doing?” A mature, calm voice asks, and Aspen grips his table. She's just gotten home from whatever office job she has, and hairs are dropping from her high bun. _Disgraceful,_ Aspen thinks.

“Please,” Aspen says quietly, instinct making him flatten his upper body against the papers scattered messily all over his plastic desk. “Please knock first,” he repeats himself, and honestly, how often has he been parroting that same request? The brunet reminds his mother that so many times. He hates it, can't help but _hate_ it when she's in his room without permission. It’s his private space, just please, just go, just _anything_.

Her warm smile turns icy at the drop of a hat. “I didn't want to see what you were drawing anyway,” she spits, and then she's slamming the door forcefully. Truthfully, Aspen is just happy she's finally left, but as he straightens up he hears his mother’s retort of ‘I bet it isn't even good.’ Aspen grits his teeth, staring at the concept art strewn across the table.

For one brief, fleeting moment, he considers tearing into the pile on his desk, ripping apart the pieces of paper into tiny shreds and scattering them across his floor for his mother to clean up; but Aspen takes a deep breath, and no, he's not going to do that. His mother is having a bad day. That's all. It will pass.

Aspen begrudgingly picks up his tablet pen and continues sketching.

.

Kyler is once again reading off his textbook when Keith calls his name from downstairs. Curious, he sticks his head outside before making a run for it.

“Don't take stairs two at a time!” Keith snaps, and Kyler sighs and obeys, his run also slowing to a walk. Leigh is sitting in their living room, and little Nick is curiously pulling on her long red hairs. She's busy chugging down grape juice and doesn't seem to mind.

“We’ve got ten people recruited, including myself,” Leigh announces when Kyler grabs a bottle of sugared tea and join them on the cramped couch.

“Nice,” Kyler says. “I'll get Aspen to send you all the stuff.”

The doorbell rings. “Oi! Come here, you bitch!” A familiar voice yells, and Kyler winces, looking apologetically at Keith. Leigh covers Nick’s ears as the loud knocking continues. Kyler sighs and opens the door.

“My family's home,” he hisses as a greeting.

“Oh? What a pity. Didn't I give you a warning that I'd be coming over?”

Kyler checks his phone and Aspen has indeed sent a message forty minutes ago. Oops.

“Senpai’s here,” Kyler says as he pushes Aspen into the living room. He sits the brunet down on the opposing couch. The first one really is too crowded. “She's said she's gathered a small group of people who would be interested,” Kyler informs Aspen.

“People are interested?” Aspen looks to the redhead, who nods in confirmation, and looks bewildered. “Why would they be interested?”

“Some would like a project to practice on. They're planning to study animation courses in university. Others like me just think it sounds fun. Also, some have no interest in animation but just want to help however they can.”

Aspen looks at her, puzzled, humming in thought, and then he turns and whispers to Kyler, “I don't understand why.”

“It's a people like to make others happy kind of thing,” Kyler explains quietly. Their companions curiously look at both of them exchange glances, but don't comment.

“Ahh. I will add that to my memory.” Out loud, Aspen asks Leigh if she would like the files, and after she agrees, he forcibly shoves himself on the armrest and shows her what he has on the tablet he brought. Keith makes Aspen sit down in his place and then joins Kyler. The redhead and the brunet are apparently in feverish discussion. Their voices are too low for Kyler to pick up, but he can see them nod, shake their heads and there's a general sense of urgency in Aspen’s gestures, excitement in Leigh’s.

“Do you have any idea what they're whispering about?” Keith asks.

Kyler shrugs. “Not a clue.”

.

Days and weeks pass, and Kyler really is starting to see their little labour of love come together. It's dumb, it's stupid, and all those working on it can agree that More, Without Lore is charming in a nonsensical, parodic, adorable way.

Kyler frowns now, sticking his tongue out and doodling on shadows and decorations like the brunet taught him to. He'll need to refine it later on, of course. Aspen is doing his fair share of the work by helping himself to Kyler’s lunch.

“Aaasssskun,” Kyler groans, leaning his head back. “I think that's like, frame number five hundred thousand done today. Can I rest?”

Aspen pretends to turn it over in his mind. “I'll let you rest as soon as I finish my work, you fucker.” He doesn't even put down his utensils.

Kyler looks up at Aspen sadly. “My lunch…” Kyler sighs as he creates a new frame. “Hey, Asskun, why are you putting your real personality as the character’s that you're playing?”

“Exactly. They'll think it's the character I'm playing. It adds another layer of non-suspicion to the cheerful persona I've meticulously curated.”

“Aspen, I know you think you're super duper fucking intelligent, but for goodness’ sake, learn to speak normally.”

Aspen shrugs and swallows his food. “Basically, they'd never ever ever know in a million years, you cunt.”

“Why do you let me know, then?” Kyler asks, and he's truly unsure why of all people Aspen has chosen to let into his life, he chose Kyler. Certainly he could have found hundreds, if not thousands of other students eligible as his ‘top ally’.

“You entertain me,” Aspen says. And then he pauses. “I like you as a person,” he answers with more force in his inflections, and he makes a sort of grimace that makes Kyler laugh, because honestly Aspen’s aversion to anything sappy is legendarily hilarious, at least to him.

“Do you ever wonder why we're friends? I saw a social media post where people recount people they don't remember when they became friends with, and yeah. For me, you're that friend,” Kyler says, shoulders still shaking.

“We were tablemates for a year, you asshole.”

Kyler manages to quell his giggles and makes a placating motion with his hands. “Okay, yeah, yup! Never forgetting that one again. Thanks, Asskun,” he says, still grinning uncontrollably and flashing Aspen a thumbs up. The brunet snorts dismissively.

“I'm making you colour in backgrounds too if I hear another fucking sound out of your fucking mouth.”

“Man, you're so mean…”

.

“I think it's coming together rather well. What do you think, mate?” Leigh brushes her hair over her shoulder as she looks at Aspen in enquiry. They're in the computer lab, and the few students that are in this quiet cool location barely pay them any mind.

Aspen clenches his fists, taking a deep breath. This is the girl, right? The religious one. He had been so sure that she’d never want to have anything to do with him again... that honestly, she has caught him off guard. Aspen is never, ever caught off guard by his peers. Leigh is unpredictable. But here she is now, her innocent blue eyes shining in a way that Aspen is pretty sure isn’t possible to fake. 

He’ll give her a chance, then.

“Yes,” he exhales. “Yes, it actually looks watchable. Is there anything I can do for all of you? Seriously, thank you. Since the animation module was cancelled, if it weren't for you guys I'd still be sitting on a pile of shit.”

Leigh smiles at Aspen, and hesitantly, he gives her a quick flicker of a smile back. “We wanted to help, Aspen. I’ll ask the others, but I can almost guarantee they don't want anything in return, either. They're happy to see this project come to fruition.”

“Why is that so?”

“People like to see others happy.” Leigh pauses. “Isn't that why you're doing this in the first place?”

“I have no clue what you're talking about,” Aspen says as he registers a new YouTube account under their series name. “The password is Motherfucker123, with a capital M. Don't forget.”

“I appreciate your brilliant literary wit,” Leigh deadpans. “No, seriously, aren't you doing this to make someone happy?”

Aspen types rapidly on the keyboard. “Of course not. I have no interest in such trivial matters.”

Leigh doesn't speak for awhile and Aspen begins to relax, and then she says, “You don't seem like the type to commit to a project such as this. It's Kyler, isn't it?”

“That fool?” Aspen ceases his keyboard abuse. “We worked on this together.”

“You're avoiding my question,” Leigh states bluntly.

Aspen chuckles, and then it develops into full-blown laughter. “Checkmate. Well done,” he says, smirking at the redhead as he returns to keying in the description. “I suppose Kyler has played a part in all this, if you really insist.”

“I knew it.”

Aspen sighs, still smiling wryly. “If you ever tell him, you're dead meat, you hear?” A few more button presses, and he clicks upload. The brunet leans back in his chair. That's it. It's done. It's on the web.

Leigh leans in to take over the computer, clicking on the video and watching it from start to end. “I'm really proud, to be honest,” she comments, eyes shining.

“Why is that?”

“It's kind of like, our child that we've created from scratch, and raised to become so big. It's a feeling like that, but also on a smaller scale,” Leigh explains, clicking the X and shutting the computer down. She gives Aspen a kind, warm smile, the completely sincere one where her eyes crinkle that Aspen has also learnt to fake. He stares at her curiously, and he wonders what it's like to feel so genuine towards others.

“Is this going to be a regular thing?” Aspen’s senior asks as they exit the computer lab together.

Aspen hums in thought. “It's mid-September. Finals are starting soon. Probably after then, if you're able.”

“You know, you're really cool, Aspen,” Leigh says, and that makes Aspen stop and stare because “cool” is definitely the last word used to describe him, ever.

“Explain.”

Leigh smiles gently. “You're the only artist I know with a creative vision, no matter how much you had to be persuaded to do it. Even my buddies only really want to work on others' projects. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I find it admirable that you have a concept, first and foremost.”

“Leigh, Leigh,” Aspen chuckles. “You overestimate me.”

“...perhaps, but I believe you're capable of something truly great. It must be God’s will.” Leigh waves at him. “See you again soon! Good luck studying!” she calls, and Aspen shakes his head. He touches his fingers to his lips, and then he realises that Leigh has forced not one, but two actual smiles in the span of a few minutes.

That night, Aspen dusts off his abandoned, neglected textbook and flips it open.


	3. Contribution

Aspen finds himself blinking and twitching his eyes, because what the hell where did all his classmates even come from. They’re demon spawn, swarming him like a bunch of fucking ants. He’s still flashing his award-winning smile at them, though if he's honest he wants them all to _scram_ , like _right now_.

“Aspen, Aspen, you're so cool!”

“Who’s that cutie with you in that skit?”

“Was it hard? I can't believe the amount of talent you have!”

“Guys,” Aspen whines, hopefully playfully. “What are you talking about? You know I'm totally lost, right?” The brunet winks at them, smirking slightly.

One of the annoying girls grins at him and shows him a video playing on her phone. “Check this out!” Aspen recognises it as one of the parody news segments the school produces. She presses play, and Aspen pouts his lips, widening his eyes and trying his best to look like he's paying attention, because in five seconds he's going to zone out.

No such luck, unfortunately. The girl drags her finger across the screen and releases around the two minute mark. Aspen prepares to roll his eyes all the way back into his sockets when a familiar voice narrates, “Two aspiring students on our campus have created their very own internet series -” and Aspen holds off on that urge for now. 

Aspen watches with blue eyes that are stretched large to feign interest. The ‘newscaster’ doesn't seem familiar to him. He doesn't recognised the neatly combed short brown hair and red glasses, but he introduces himself as one of the animators working on More, Without Lore. Aspen stares disinterestedly at Glasses Guy’s serene expression superimposed on the fake globe background. What a stupid fucker. Must be one of Leigh’s classmates. He's vaguely aware he's mentally cussing out his Art Programme senior, but screw him.

He hears the excited chattering around him quieten down and he looks up to find the students surrounding his desk looking at him hopefully.

“Do you need help?”

“I’m self-taught so I can't do much, but I can try!”

“Hit me up if you want!”

“Sounds like fun!”

Aspen lets a slow smile cross his features. Goodness, if he had realised much earlier how easy it was to get free labour from others, he would have tried to self-promote a long time ago. 

“Sure, you can help if you want!” Aspen says brightly, and smiles when the crowd cheers. “Thank you all very much!”

.

Leigh is just minding her own business, humming a tune from the latest pop song while strolling along the corridors of the year three classrooms. So she doesn't expect a tall thin shape to barrel straight into her and shake her by the shoulders.

“Leigh, you have discovered a monumental breakthrough!” She blinks and realises it’s Kyler’s friend. What was her name again? Ah - _Aspen_.

“Ah, what, exactly?” Leigh chuckles and pries the agitated brunet off her. “You’re gonna have to be more specific, mate.”

Aspen blinks at her. “Were you aware that making our pet project publicised would get free labour handed to us on a silver platter?”

Leigh just kind of stares at the shorter boy in surprise. Is he a ninja? Is he for real? Why does he talk like that? She coughs awkwardly. “If you’re referring to today’s video on Channel Camworthy, that wasn't my idea. It was Ace’s. He’s in the filmmaking club, so of course, he’s one of the more experienced animators.”

“I see.” Aspen looks thoughtful. “Well, do me a favour and help me thank him.” Leigh silently recalls Kyler’s description of his friend and laughs a little at that. She was expecting some sort of mega huge total jerk, but Aspen Koller can be nice if he wants to. That alone makes her better than the worst of the worst.

Okay, maybe that isn't a compliment, but it's a start.

The brunet falls into step beside Leigh, and the two are silent for a while. “So, what are you going to do?” Leigh asks, and she observes with silent fascination the grace with which he walks. Honestly she wishes she could make it look that effortless, but she's always been Leigh. Clumsy, rowdy Leigh.

Aspen rolls his eyes. “Probably train those fuckers,” he says. “Some of them actually aren't that bad. I'm not sure why they aren't in the Art Programme themselves. The others, however…” Aspen shudders mockingly at the thought. “I have drawn better things in kindergarten than those assholes have ever drawn in their lives.”

_That’s not very nice,_ Leigh wants to say, but she’s 99.9% sure if she were to voice that thought she would just get a scathing remark in response. “How are you planning to exploit them, then?” she asks instead.

Aspen barks out short laughter. “Dude, mate, girl, I’m just going to line them all up in one row and then single out the good ones. Do you think that idea’s inoffensive enough that I’d still be able to retain rep points?”

“You mean interviewing? I think that's a good idea. The ones who get offended by that are the ones you don't need, anyway.” Leigh eyeballs her junior. “To be honest, I was expecting you to be the type to get worked up over being rejected. Aren't you?”

Aspen stops in her tracks and the redhead registers he actually looks pretty annoyed by that statement. “No, I don't,” he hisses, “and I’m more concerned you would even think that I would care about such trivial matters.”

Leigh chuckles nervously and makes a ‘cool-down’ motion with her hands. “Okay, sorry, sorry! I'll keep that in mind!”

Aspen has one hand on his chin now, peering closely at her. “Yes, I think you're it. You're the one.”

Leigh blinks, pursing her lips. “Huh?”

“I said, you dumbass motherfucker, come with me, and we shall interview people together.” The way Aspen says the word ‘interview’ while smirking makes Leigh think that she probably just wants to verbally attack the beginner artists.

“Okay, but no being overly insulting.”

“As if I would. I’m not some dumbass piece of shit.”

“Yeah, right. Prove to me that you won't.” Leigh furrows her brow and crosses her arms. She would like to think she has the patience of a saint, but to be quite honest she has no clue how or why Kyler would even put up with the rude brunette. “Imagine I'm someone whose art looks like it crawled out of a daycare. What would you say to reject me, mate?”

Aspen opens his mouth and she barks at him, “ _Politely!_ ”

Her junior looks at her with an air of actual surprise, and then he's legitimately _laughing_ at her. Leigh sighs and clutches at the strap of her bag. She has to say she admires Kyler’s perseverance.

“Yeah, alright, got it. No messing around.” Then he smiles all too fakely and is crooning, “Daaah-ling, your art is simply to _die_ for! In fact, I've already died and gone to heaven! That’s why I can't accept you, sorry!” Then Aspen is twirling her long brown ponytail with one finger, batting her eyelashes in a falsely flirtatious manner. “Oh, tee-hee!”

Despite the fact he's been doing nothing but drive her up the wall, Leigh can't help a small chuckle at that. “Sorry, mate. Being passive-aggressive isn't usually considered nice.”

“Fuck it all, then what’s the ‘passive’ in that phrase even for?”

“Doesn't work that way in real life. Sorry, man. Try again.”

.

They end up deciding on a good cop, bad cop kind of arrangement because Aspen is apparently unable to last five seconds without being a total prat. Oh, and Kyler is here for ‘emotional support’, as he puts it.

Unfortunately More, Without Lore apparently isn't recognised by the school as an official school matter that needs support, so they don't have permission to have an official stall in the school canteen to welcome interested applicants. Aspen suggests to just get Ace to make a public broadcast. 

And that's why their little trio is in a dark, soundproof room, waiting while the filmmakers mull it over in their minds. “I'm the scriptwriter,” Ace explains. “I still need approval from Mrs Walker to put this in our script.”

“Haven't you already mentioned it in a broadcast once before? It should be fine, right?” Kyler is chewing nervously on his fingers, having been forbidden from eating inside.

Ace smiles apologetically. “A mention is fine, we do that sort of thing all the time. An ad, though? Might take a _little_ convincing.” He gestures with the distance between his thumb and index finger. From the way they're stretched as far apart as is anatomically possible, Leigh thinks he probably needs a dictionary for his birthday.

“I see.” Aspen nods and smiles at him, and Leigh is momentarily disarmed. Who replaced the irritable junior with a clone in the five seconds she hasn't been paying attention? 

“Thank you for considering my proposal. Let’s go, guys.” In her shock, she vaguely feels herself being pushed out of the air-conditioned room and now she blinks as the bright light from outside foods her vision.

Leigh feels... Leigh feels so _stunned_. She stares at Aspen and asks disbelievingly, “What was that??”

Aspen pulls on her hair none too gently and she winces. “Hey, what was that for?”

“Do you have a problem with my shit or something?”

Kyler laughs and they start walking to the school gates. “No, he's like that. I have never seen anyone more delighted to be a fake bitch.” The dark-skinned teen dodges, smiling irritatingly as Aspen takes another fruitless swipe at him.

“I didn't know you were capable of that, Aspen. Good on ya,” Leigh says teasingly.

Aspen rearranges his annoyed scowl into a more neutral expression. “Fuck off.” She stalks forward, leaving Leigh and Kyler in the dust. The duo look at each other and burst out laughing.

.

Kyler coughs awkwardly into his hands, blushing when he meets the interviewee’s eyes. He tries to casually rub his sweaty palms against his shorts. Aspen kicks him under the table and he winces. Got it, alright. He sits up ramrod straight and his eyes wander around the courtyard, taking in the basketball court and various plants.

Aspen himself is silent, sitting at the bench and staring straight ahead. He smiles when he catches their eyes, but otherwise is leaving everything to his redheaded neighbour.

“Why am I even here?” Kyler asks Aspen. Unfortunately they couldn't run an ad, so the three of them are conducting informal interviews near their usual bench. There has only been approximately twenty students, but honestly, Kyler wasn't expecting anything more. He was even surprised by that number. 

Leigh seems to have a quality about her that makes others want to relax, let her know everything about them, so Aspen hasn't really needed to do anything. She laughs, chirping merrily to them and being the generally friendly girl she is. Leigh probably was a good choice even without that fact. Juniors are so dazzled by seniors sometimes. Kyler chuckles. _Including me._

“The same reason I'm here,” Aspen says flatly. The droning monotone snaps him out of his reverie. “Appear inviting, available and friendly, or that’s what your Senpai said. I was so looking forward to being a 'total git'.” 

Kyler sighs. At least his brother has delivered some lunch for them, or his stomach would be rumbling embarrassingly right about now. He munches on the cookies now, feeling bored. Man, these are exquisite. _Must have been expensive,_ the black-haired teen thinks. “I mean, dude, at least you have skill in the arts. I'm just here for... why again?” Kyler asks aloud, wrinkling his brows.

Aspen just glares at him. “Is there a problem with you being here? Didn't you want this?”

Kyler grins nervously, clutching at the fabric of his shorts. He thanks the group of students that are still circling nearby. Leigh is nodding, telling them to email her privately with examples of their work. With them around, Aspen doesn't risk being overly harsh. “No, no, it's not that!” Kyler says, coughing. He rubs his arm awkwardly. “It's just that I feel like it doesn't matter if I'm here anyway!”

Aspen doesn't look at him, but Kyler feels a hand shoot out and rub his shoulder. “I like you being here,” the brunet says. “So you'd better stay.”

“Even if I have no artistic talent whatsoever?”

“Yes, god, just stay. Okay? I'll make it up to you later. Sorry for wasting your time,” Aspen mutters.

Kyler peers at the other boy curiously. Sometimes, he really wonders if it's his fault or the brunet’s fault, and who is more unclear in the grand scheme of things. “You’re not, Aspen. It's fine.” He takes Aspen’s pale hand in his own, linking their fingers together.

.

Aspen wants to cackle madly and rub his hands together like he's some sort of fucking evil supervillain. Then he cuts off that train of thought and slaps himself. Stop that. It's silly, it's childish, it's - he shudders - _retarded._

He sits his ass down forcefully and allows himself to grin. That good little ginger girl has managed to gather a huge sampling of students. He fidgets, the chair dragging back and forth behind him.

He scrolls through some of their examples on his laptop and cocks his head. He saves some of them to his gallery for artistic reference. Some of Aspen’s Art Programme classmates have volunteered as well, and he'd never tell it to their faces (truthfully) but they’re all really good at this shit - and therefore, he will take notes. How is he to lead this ragtag bunch if he can't scribble for balls?

Aspen lets out a ‘Hm’, emailing pretty much everyone on the list because he ain't got time for this. He makes exceptions for the ones who look like they managed to fuck up even worse than MS Paint. Aspen sighs and gets onto his phone, scrolling through his conversations until he finds the one he's looking for. 

**Leigh:** Hi Aspen! This is Leigh. Text me if you need help with stuff :)

Aspen clicks his tongue as he saves her number. He's half tempted to input her name as something ridiculous and childish, but that would be incredibly unnecessary. Besides, he won't stoop to such dumb shit.

**Asskun:** yeah uwu stuwupid bitch help me tell the rest of the ignored stupid talentless fuckers to fuck off  
**Asskun:** Here’s the list Charlene, Andy, Ellen, Min Xin  
**Asskun:** got it, ginger girl?  
**Leigh:** That is a fantastic username. I ought to apply it immediately. Working on the list. :^)

Aspen’s hand hovers over the keyboard, but decides _screw it, I'm leaving her on read_ and flings the phone onto the bed behind him. 

He clutches at his hair when his phone chimes again, this time signalling a message from Kyler. He stands up stiffly after he shuts the laptop down, striding over to his bed and picking the phone up.

**Kyler:** Senpai wants to know if you're a furry.  
**Asskun:** okay tell her this ‘dafuq fucc off m8’  
**Kyler:** How about ‘yes I am’?  
**Asskun:** Fuwuck uwu  
**Kyler:** There it is. Feel free to come out of the closet anytime ya know??

Aspen promptly blocks the obnoxious little fucker. Only for a second, though. He's taken a screenshot and sends it to Kyler as a warning.

**Kyler:** Haha xd lololol SO FUNNY bye lol

Aspen smiles briefly. Then he's off, typing a list of things he will need for motherfucking ‘Animator Boot Camp’, informal meetings the seniors have arranged to help everyone be on the same page. Fuck, this is exactly the type of time wasting nonsense he hates. He can't even skip lessons either, because it's _unofficial_.

Aspen flops onto his bed, groaning. He hopes it will be worth it. It's no longer his project alone, that much is certain. It's evolving into something big, and somehow, despite himself he finds his heart pounding faster.

.

“I'm doing my best,” Kyler promises to no one in particular, maybe it's himself, heaven knows it's himself that needs the most convincing. He sighs as he continues eyeballing pictures of weirdly photorealistic fruits. What the hell was this guy’s name again? Kyler thought it was Pablo Picasso, but apparently not, so whatever.

They’re in the cool room of the computer lab. Kyler is actually pretty impressed Art students get a special lab all to themselves, and the teacher-in-charge had been pretty relenting, granting them permission to basically use the lab as a clubroom.

He hears deliberate footsteps behind him and stiffens, turning around rigidly. Aspen has his hand to his chin, staring over at Kyler. He's supposed to be supervising the rest of the students as well, but apparently he's so bad he deserves special treatment. Kyler wants to cry internally, but smiles weakly and gives his friend a thumbs up.

Aspen sits down next to the black-haired boy. “Yeah. Better,” Aspen says, nodding, and Kyler’s chest swells with pride. “You’re not actually that bad, you just need some practice. Good.” He stands up and strolls away.

Some of the year ones from the Art Programme are here as well, and Kyler feels so woefully inadequate next to them. He feels like he's producing a bunch of trash compared to their beautiful creations. The seniors are being incredibly understanding and guiding them all in how to use the software more efficiently. Kyler is unfortunately, still kind of stuck on copying duty.

He leans back in the chair and twists his wrist to exercise it. Kyler smiles softly to himself. Honestly, despite his incompetence and the _slight_ detail that he basically played no part in any of this - Kyler is really happy their project is getting off the ground. He’s become even more popular in class lately, and random classmates he's never even spared a glance too are coming forward and congratulating him. 

It's dumb and kind of shallow, but Kyler can't help how excited he feels at the prospect of the future.

.

Leigh wakes up to the sound of her phone buzzing. She rubs her eyes and smoothens her messy hair out. She squints her eyes as she picks up the offending phone. It's 8am. She hadn't expected Aspen of all people to be an opportunist.

_Asskun created the group “You fucking assholes uwu”_  
_Asskun has added you to the group._  
_Asskun has added Kyler to the group._  


**Asskun @You fucking assholes uwu:** Guess I should say thanks or something. Leigh for being a literal godsend, and Kyler for being only a slight screw up. Gfy

Leigh laughs at that. The dark-skinned teen is apparently still asleep.

**GingerGirl:** Thank you too, Aspen. As a reward, would you like to hear what he does in shooting club all day? :)))))  
**Asskun:** Senpai gimme cummies uwu 

Leigh laughs and types out a huge wall of text detailing how Kyler accidentally fired a point blank at the floor last Friday, causing widespread chaos. 

.

Kyler yawns and rubs his eyes, checking his phone as he does so. Almost on cue, he drops it. A murderous grin appears on his dark features.

“Keith!” he screams downstairs.

“What do you want, bro?”

“Is it legal to kill your neighbour?”

“I highly doubt it. Hey wait, did Leigh do something? Kyler? Kyler! Put that gun down!!”

**Author's Note:**

> This is so meta


End file.
